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FAA Clears More Altimeters From 5G C-band Impact as Airlines Adjust Flight Operations

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, whose Terminal 5 Airfield is pictured here, was one of several U.S. airports that Emirates resumed flights to after temporarily suspending flights to some U.S. destinations amid the deployment of 5G C-Band services. (Chicago Department of Aviation)

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday published a statement to allow an estimated 78 percent of the in-service U.S. commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at airports where wireless companies deployed 5G C-band, giving several U.S. and international airlines the ability to restore some flights that were cancelled due to AT&T and Verizon flipping the switch on their new networks on Jan. 19.

Thursday’s update from the FAA followed an agreement reached by the aviation and telecommunications industry on Tuesday when AT&T and Verizon both agreed to temporarily delay turning on a limited number of the 5G C-Band towers that they’re deploying near certain airports. Since the beginning of December, the two sides of the 5G C-Band deployment have agreed to several delays and risk mitigation measures for the 5G towers being deployed to ensure aircraft radar and radio altimeter signals do not experience interference from the new wireless network services that are being deployed.

According to the statement published Thursday by the FAA, airplane models that feature one of 13 “cleared altimeters” that the agency has determined are safe from potential 5G C-Band interference include “all Boeing 717, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 787, MD-10/-11; all Airbus A300, A310, A319, A320, A330, A340, A350 and A380 models; and some Embraer 170 and 190 regional jets.”

FAA officials are anticipating some altimeters will be too susceptible to potential 5G interference and the aircraft they’re featured on will be prohibited from performing low-visibility landings where 5G C-Band is deployed because the altimeter could provide inaccurate information. Aircraft radar altimeters operate within 4.2–4.4 GHz, the lower half of which falls within the C-Band—a frequency range from 3.7–4.2 GHz where the combination of the range of signal transmissions and capacity are optimum.

The 5G wireless networks that were switched on by AT&T and Verizon this week operate within the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency range, close to the altimeters, which has left aviation industry experts with concerns over signal interference issues. In December, the FAA published new airworthiness directives (ADs) that will prohibit certain types of advanced fixed and rotary wing landing procedures that rely on the use of radar altimeter data.

Verizon, in a Jan. 19 statement published to its website said that it has “voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and our nation’s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries.” This latest voluntary agreement, which AT&T has also committed to, is in addition to the six-month period during which the two companies have already stated they will limit the power radiated from 5G base stations located near airports.

“Following a 6-week voluntary pause and the implementation of additional precautionary measures to allow the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation industry to complete evaluations, today’s introduction of C-Band spectrum begins turbo-boosting our 5G wireless service with our newest AT&T 5G+ service,” AT&T said in a Jan. 19 statement.

Several U.S. and international airlines adjusted flight operations this week as the FAA continues its work determining which aircraft altimeters are too susceptible to 5G C-Band interference to allow them to operate low visibility landings at certain airports. The FAA on Jan. 7 published a new list of the 50 U.S. airports that will have “buffer zones” around them to further mitigate against the risk of potential 5G C-Band altimeter signal interference.

Emirates is reinstating its Boeing 777 operations to Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Miami, Newark, Orlando and Seattle as a result of the FAA’s latest update clearing altimeters featured on nearly 80% of the in-service U.S. commercial fleet, according to a Jan. 20 statement published by the Middle Eastern carrier. Earlier this week, Emirates suspended its services to some US destinations based on the FAA advisory and recommendations from Boeing on possible interference between the 5G antennas and aircraft altimeters.

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers by the temporary suspension of flights to some of our US destinations. Safety will always be our top priority, and we will never gamble on this front,” Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline said in a statement. “We welcome the latest development which enables us to resume essential transport links to the US to serve travelers and cargo shippers. However, we are also very aware that this is a temporary reprieve, and a long-term resolution would be required. Emirates will continue to work closely with the aircraft manufacturers and relevant regulators to ensure the safety and continuity of our services.”

When asked about the 5G C-Band deployment issues during a Jan. 20 earnings call, outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said that the airline does not anticipate “any material disruption” as long a the latest voluntarily agreements from AT&T and Verizon remain in place. Incoming Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan shared an update with the regional carrier’s employees on Jan. 19 that was also welcoming to the agreements undertaken by AT&T and Verizon as well.

Jordan said that the two companies only recently released all of the data necessary for aircraft manufacturers to perform safety tests. “This means the right parties haven’t had the time needed to study potential 5G interference with aircraft equipment and to develop extensive mitigation plans that would prevent disruptions,” he said. “Now, my hope is that this pause in 5G expansion grants the FAA more time to evaluate the data for specific airports and runways so that 5G cellular service and airline operations can safely coexist, as it shouldn’t be a one-or-the-other proposition.”

The post FAA Clears More Altimeters From 5G C-band Impact as Airlines Adjust Flight Operations appeared first on Aviation Today.

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NASA’s Innovation Award Supports Phase II of ATM Optimization Project

The SmartSky network was designed specifically with applications like this collaborative project with Mosaic ATM and GE Aviation in mind, the company says. (Photo: SmartSky Networks)

A new collaboration between GE Aviation, SmartSky Networks, and Mosaic ATM was announced that will connect airborne and cloud-based flight management systems (FMS) for airspace management optimization in addition to enabling low altitude air traffic management (ATM) for advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft. This research and the efforts to optimize air traffic management will be conducted under an Innovation Award from NASA. The cloud-based FMS concept will expand available data inputs and processing capabilities to improve real-time airspace management planning for air traffic controllers.

Representatives from each of the three companies involved in this collaboration spoke in more detail with Avionics International about what they hope to accomplish. Todd Kilbourne, Senior Program Manager at Mosaic ATM, explained that they began partnering with SmartSky Networks during Phase I of the project. “We started with a simulation of messages that would go back and forth between an on-board FMS and a cloud digital twin version of the FMS,” Kilbourne said. “We used the SmartSky network—both in their simulation lab and their real air-ground network—to validate that the types of messages that would be transmitted between the two versions of FMS could be delivered at the required performance levels over an existing network: the high-bandwidth, high-reliability SmartSky network. We proved that concept and validated that we had an existing network that could perform the way we needed it to.”

Pictured above is the cockpit demonstrator with the cloud-based flight management system. (Photo: SmartSky Networks)

NASA gave another Innovation Award to SmartSky and Mosaic, allowing them continue with Phase II of the project—which is when they added GE Aviation as a partner. Now, they are about six months into what will be a two-year-long project. In Phase II, Kilbourne shared that they will be testing, both in the simulation lab and SmartSky’s network, “a real connection between the GE TrueCourse FMS on board and their cloud instance of that, and further validate the concept using real products.” The results of this project will include research results, experimental results, and test reports to inform further development of the SmartSky network along with GE’s TrueCourse FMS. Throughout Phase II, there will be a significant focus on commercialization of the concept.

Gary Goz, Navigation Systems Product Director with GE Aviation, explained that in this collaboration, they are working to establish the architecture and design decisions for the changes necessary to accommodate the cloud-based version of GE’s TrueCourse FMS. Their FMS, he said, “is designed to be an open architecture, so it is built with scalability in mind and really focused on how TrueCourse plays in a more connected ecosystem.”

“The project will take the TrueCourse baseline, take some of that flight management non-safety-critical modularity, and either move it or replicate it offboard. In creating that digital twin piece, we take all of that software offboard and provide that capability to innovate the pieces that we can’t change often or quickly onboard, and replicate that in the cloud,” said Goz. Using that digital twin enables traffic flow management and the ability to avoid stackups or hold patterns, which can be done offboard in a highly accurate way.

The SmartSky aircraft connectivity network was designed specifically with applications like this collaborative project in mind, and the products the company used for this project are standard commercial products that are available off-the-shelf. Brian Trainum, Director of Applications at SmartSky, commented, “The aircraft radio and the ground network itself are really designed specifically for these types of requirements that need low latency, that need a bi-directional, high-bandwidth network to support.”

The collaboration is testing a real connection between the GE TrueCourse FMS on board and the cloud version in order to validate the concept. (Photo: SmartSky Networks)

Goz from GE Aviation shared his perspective on the AAM market, saying that there have been many providers hoping to introduce services with traditional, proven capabilities in order to lower risk and achieve certification more quickly. “With our incumbency on the air transport side,” he explained, “the capability to go to market will be a lot easier because we can use that incumbency to prove the product that we have there. That allows us to get it to market more efficiently and in a short time frame.” The team at GE Aviation has been actively engaged with some OEMs and those looking to build out the infrastructure for AAM. Getting their FMS to market quickly is critical for delivering the volume of service that the market now expects, Goz commented.

Modernization of airspace and the role of the FMS—in addition to the pilot participating in a more connected ecosystem—are central to GE Aviation’s mission of sustainability, said Jeremy Barbour, Vice President and General Manager of Connected Aircraft at GE Aviation. “Exploring this technology so that we more deeply understand how flight management system products need to evolve to efficiently participate in this network is really going to help us do that effectively,” he shared.

Barbour also spoke about the numerous flight plan optimization applications currently available in the market and the problems that may arise in utilizing them. “If the offboard application—which is not a digital twin of the FMS—determines that there is a better way to fly the plane, it’s very difficult to know if the FMS will agree that it is, in fact, better. Will the aircraft fly the changed route in a highly predictable, accurate way?”

Having the digital twin of the FMS in the cloud is a great way to solve these problems, he said. “You can interact with the FMS to know: does the FMS agree that this is a better route? If we upload that route change to the FMS, will that plane fly that route in an extremely accurate and predictable way? In order to achieve optimization at the network level that we need, those two problems have to be solved, and we think this is a great way to do that.”

The post NASA’s Innovation Award Supports Phase II of ATM Optimization Project appeared first on Aviation Today.

CEO of AIR Talks eVTOLs for Personal Flight

AIR has already received pre-orders for more than 50 units of its AIR ONE eVTOL. (Photo: AIR)

The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) developer AIR unveiled its AIR ONE vehicle and began taking pre-orders in October 2021. In an interview with Avionics International, CEO and co-founder Rani Plaut discussed the company’s approach to designing its personal aerial vehicle and achieving FAA certification by the end of 2023. AIR looks to be growing rapidly over the last few months and has already received pre-orders for over 50 units.

There are two prototypes of the AIR ONE—a full-scale, semi-functional prototype for ground demonstration, and another large-scale that is, technologically, fully functional. Plaut explained, “We have a division of functionality so we can really sharpen the product on both the aesthetics and on the technological side.” The technologically functional prototype is set to take off in the next 4–6 weeks.

AIR has worked to differentiate the AIR ONE from other players in the eVTOL market as a vehicle intended for personal use, for “making flight accessible to regular people,” said Plaut. “Of course, a pilot license is required, but we are aiming for a very low level of training.” The eVTOL market includes small, recreational aircraft that have a very short range, and the larger eVTOLs and air taxis produced by companies such as Volocopter, Lilium, Archer, Joby, and others are designed for commercial applications. The AIR ONE, then, is sthe car of the category—a personal vehicle intended for commuting or leisure purposes.

The range of an AIR ONE eVTOL will be over 100 miles. AIR hopes to obtain G1 certification from the FAA by the end of 2023. (Photo: AIR)

The key features of AIR’s eVTOL are practicality, affordability, safety, and ease of handling. The range is over 100 miles, and units are priced at $150,000 each. Plaut describes the aircraft’s “extreme simplicity and high redundancy that creates a very high level of safety and very easy handling. If I train you, within an hour you will be able to operate it. You are truly enveloped in our software and are very safe.”

AIR’s vision is to bring its vehicle to the mass market, producing and selling thousands of units each year. To grow public acceptance and ensure smooth assimilation of the aircraft into low altitude airspace, the team is focusing on safety and noise reduction. “At the end of the day,” said Plaut, “the product needs to coexist with people. It’s not about the user; it’s about the whole community.” While the U.S. market is the primary target for AIR’s eVTOL, customers from Israel and the U.K. have already pre-ordered units, and Australia is another potential market.

This is the prototype of the AIR ONE vehicle being worked on at their facility. (AIR)

One of the company’s priorities is designing an aircraft that can be used in a variety of applications but is not tailored to any one specific use. A rescue helicopter, in comparison, is designed with one specific set of operations in mind. Just as a car owner can use their vehicle for commuting, leisure, or a taxi service, the AIR ONE could be used by package delivery companies like UPS, by first responders, or by those working in agriculture. “It’s like an F150. You can be a plumber with an F150; you can take your family in an F150,” remarked Plaut.

“If enough people [are interested in] using the air as a means of day-to-day transportation, companies will invest in engineering efforts in order to decouple skillsets from safety. In the air, your skillset is your safety—if you’re skilled, you’re alive. In a car, the vehicle protects you. We’re trying to make things that fly as easy to live with as cars.”

The post CEO of AIR Talks eVTOLs for Personal Flight appeared first on Aviation Today.

Savback Helicopters Becomes Exclusive Regional Distributor of Dufour Aerospace eVTOLs

Savback Helicopters will become the exclusive distributor of Dufour Aerospace’s Aero3 eVTOL in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. (Photo: Dufour Aerospace)

Swiss eVTOL developer Dufour Aerospace is partnering with Sweden-based Savback Helicopters: Dufour’s Aero3 aircraft will now be exclusively distributed by Savback in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Savback offers expertise in use cases and market prospects in the vertical lift market based on the company’s 30-year experience in helicopter sales. The Aero3 tilt-wing aircraft is an 8-seater, has a range of about 634 miles (1,020 km), and uses a hybrid-electric propulsion system.

Dufour Aerospace’s Aero3 aircraft will begin test flights by the end of this year. (Photo: Dufour Aerospace)

The first full-scale prototype of Aero3 will be built in 2022 and will begin test flights close to the end of this year, according to Dufour’s CCO Sascha Hardegger in an emailed interview with Avionics International. 2026 is likely the earliest year that Aero3 will achieve its first certification, according to Hardegger.

Dufour Aerospace has also developed an unmanned aircraft, Aero2, and its third-generation prototype is currently undergoing test flights. This vehicle’s design is also based on the tilt-wing principle. The first delivery of Aero2 is expected to occur within the next two years, stated Hardegger.

Pictured is the unmanned Aero2 aircraft performing a test flight. (Photo: Dufour Aerospace)

Aero3 is being developed with the requirements of today’s helicopter markets in mind. The main applications will be patient transportation, cargo applications, surveillance, and public safety. Hardegger explained that the eVTOL’s unique design enables redundancy, which increases safety. “The tilt-wing design of Aero3,” he said, “allows for versatility by combining the best of the worlds of helicopters and aircraft, as it is both able to take off and land vertically like a helicopter and flies as efficiently as an airplane.”

The 45-member team at Dufour will likely grow this year in order to increase capacity for developing, testing, and certifying new aircraft, particularly building the full-scale prototype of Aero3. The aircraft could one day be used to meet advanced air mobility needs, but the initial focus is on applications such as search and rescue which do not require new infrastructure.

Aero3 is designed to perform patient transportation, surveillance, public safety, and cargo applications. (Dufour Aerospace)

CEO of Savback Helicopters, Reja Savbäck, said, “We strongly believe that Dufour Aerospace’s Aero3 provides options for both today’s helicopter market as well as new use cases—which its cutting edge technology opens up for us,” according to the company’s announcement. She continues, “We are proud of this partnership, as it shows that Dufour Aerospace trusts both our vast experience and our network in the aviation industry.”

The post Savback Helicopters Becomes Exclusive Regional Distributor of Dufour Aerospace eVTOLs appeared first on Aviation Today.

Lockheed Martin Invests In eSTOL Company Electra.aero

Lockheed Martin Ventures is investing in Electra’s Series A funding round to support flight testing Electra’s hybrid-electric eSTOL aircraft full-scale technology demonstrator in 2022. Pictured here is a computer-generated image of what Electra.aero’s eSTOL could look like in the future. (Electra.aero)

Electra.aero, a relatively new company pursuing new aircraft solutions for the urban and regional air mobility markets, on Tuesday said that it has received a lead investment from Lockheed Martin for a funding round that will help it get to its first flight of a technology demonstrator later this year.

The amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed and Electra is still lining up additional investors for its Series A funding round.

In addition to the investment by Lockheed Martin Ventures, the aerospace and defense giant’s venture capital unit, Lockheed Martin also signed a strategic cooperation agreement where it will work with Electra on potential solutions for the U.S. government.

Electra, which was founded in 2020 and is based in Northern Virginia, is developing a full-scale hybrid-electric ultra-short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft that can transport up to 1,800-pounds of cargo or seven to nine passengers up to 500 miles. The demonstrator aircraft will not be a full-scale model but a two-person plane to test key technologies, Robie Samanta Roy, Electra’s chief operating officer, said in an emailed statement.

Last year, Electra received a contract from the Air Force’s Agility Prime initiative, which is investing in, and leveraging, companies in the commercial electric vertical takeoff and landing for its potential future aviation needs.

“Hybrid-electric propulsion will influence every aspect of aviation,” John Langford, founder and CEO of Electra, said in a statement.

Roy said that Lockheed Martin is also essentially seeding technology “incubation,” with its investment in Electra. They are “clearly thinking about the future of air mobility” in an era of “contested logistics” that would complement the company’s existing air mobility portfolio and examine key technologies that could eventually be “brought to scale,” he said.

“Electra’s technical approach to sustainable aviation is differentiated, and we are excited to see this concept mature,” Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, said in a statement. “We invested in Electra because of its focus on hybrid-electric technology. Hybrid-electric aircraft have the potential to deliver operational and environmental advantages over other aircraft, including increased payload and range without gambling on battery improvements. We look forward to working with the Electra team and hope to partner on opportunities in the future.”

Electra is integrating two fundamental technologies for its eSTOL aircraft, a hybrid-electric propulsion system and a blown lift wing. The company’s website shows eight motors, four on each side of the fuselage attached to the leading edge of the wing, to create distributed electric propulsion that is more cost-effective flexible for a blown lift wing than jet engines used in government-developed technology demonstrator decades ago.

Electra says its aircraft will be able to operate from small spaces, 300 by 100-feet, and operate in urban areas and remote landing strips, including from building tops.

This article was first published by Defense Daily, a sister publication to Avionics International, it has been edited, view the original version here.>>

The post Lockheed Martin Invests In eSTOL Company Electra.aero appeared first on Aviation Today.

New Partnership to Add 400 Landing Bases for eVTOLs in Australia

Skyportz, a Melbourne, Australia-based startup that is developing the foundations of an air taxi network, has partnered with Secure Parking—a car parking provider—to add 400 landing bases for electric air taxis. The first landing bases, or “drone ports,” will likely be established in cities within Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales in order to promote advanced air mobility throughout Australia.

In a recent interview, Skyportz CEO Clem Newton-Brown told Avionics International that the partnership with Secure Parking opens up numerous options for drone ports at new sites, particularly as Skyportz works to change some government policies in order to activate operations. “The key to an air taxi network,” wrote Newton-Brown, “is access to a multitude of landing sites.” He also shared that the company plans to open up to potential regional franchises throughout the world in the near future.

The project to establish an air taxi network has been underway for three years. CEO Clem Newton-Brown expects that the company will soon be able to offer an efficient path to commercial activation.

As far as the timeline for setting up the landing bases, it depends on a State-based planning approval process to ensure alignment with regulatory requirements. “When an OEM chooses a launch city, there are years of work required to first get the policy and regulatory changes required and then to source the property partnerships,” commented Newton-Brown. “Our Federal government has committed $30M to advance the industry, and we are partnering with several OEMs to develop concepts of operations in Australia, hopefully with the support of this fund.”

Skyportz recently signed an agreement with Electra.Aero to purchase electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft which can be used in applications within Australia such as connecting regional areas. Additional purchase agreements for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts are expected to be finalized soon. Newton-Brown explained that eVTOLs are better suited for transportation in urban areas due to the ability to land in a smaller space.

Electra.Aero’s electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft may be used by Skyportz to connect regional areas in Australia rather than offering urban air transportation. (Photo: Electra.Aero)

Regarding the company’s outlook for 2022 and beyond, the CEO stated: “We have been working at this for three years already. While there is still some way to go to be able to activate the sites, we expect to be able to offer a quick route to commercial activation.” Australia was selected by Google’s Wing delivery service because of the positive regulatory environment as well as support from the community support. These aspects, said Newton-Brown, also apply to air taxi trials. “Our goal is to attract the frontrunners to commit to Australia by offering a readymade Skyportz network.”

The post New Partnership to Add 400 Landing Bases for eVTOLs in Australia appeared first on Aviation Today.

New Technology Enables Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The scalable integration of HyCOgen and the FT CANS technology will increase SAF supply and mitigate CO2 emissions. (Johnson Matthey)

The company Johnson Matthey just launched their HyCOgen technology that enables the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) and green hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Over 95% of the CO2 is converted into synthetic crude oil through the Reverse Water Gas Shift (HyCOgen) technology.

The FT CANS Fischer Tropsch technology, developed in coordination with bp, is combined with Johnson Matthey’s HyCOgen—a catalyzed process that forms synthesis gas, or syngas—to produce renewable fuel. The crude oil that is produced can be transformed into drop-in fuel products such as SAF, renewable diesel, and naphtha. The combination of these technologies is now available as a solution from Johnson Matthey.

According to a press release from Johnson Matthey, the scalable integration of HyCOgen and the FT CANS technology will serve to increase SAF supply and therefore mitigate CO2 emissions. The company claims that the aviation industry collectively produces 12% of the world’s transportation-related CO2 emissions. Sector Chief Executive at Johnson Matthey, Jane Toogood, explained, “There are significant hurdles in moving from hydrocarbon-based aviation fuel to alternatives such as battery electric or hydrogen. [Our expertise] in syngas generation technology can play a crucial role, by providing solutions that enable the production of sustainable drop-in fuels that are deployable today.”

Johnson Matthey played a role in United Airlines’ achievement last month of the first commercial flight using 100% drop-in SAF in one of two engines. Part of the process of enabling the SAF production was the BioForming process which uses a catalytic process to convert sugar feedstocks into BioFormate. The resulting BioFormate can be used to make biofuels that are then blended to produce the SAF. Renewable fuels and chemicals company Virent invented this technology and has partnered with Johnson Matthey since 2016 to further develop and commercialize it.

United Airlines completed the first commercial flight using 100% drop-in SAF in one of two engines last month. (United Airlines)

Johnson Matthey also entered into an agreement this week with European ethanol producer CropEnergies AG to establish a plant for producing renewable ethyl acetate using sustainable ethanol. Production of renewable ethyl acetate is estimated to reach 50,000 metric tons each year and will utilize renewable energy. According to the announcement, “The plant will also generate renewable hydrogen as a co-product that, together with biogenic CO2 from the CropEnergies fermentation process, will be the basis for further conversion of renewable energy into PtX (power-to-X) downstream routes, to produce e-fuels.”

The post New Technology Enables Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Sustainable Aviation Fuel appeared first on Aviation Today.

U.K. Government-Sponsored Trials Demonstrate Safe Tracking of BVLOS Drone Operations

Neuron Innovations completed a set of trials while leveraging the Hedera Consensus Service to demonstrate safe tracking of drones beyond visual line of sight. (Neuron Innovations)

Aviation technology company Neuron performed a set of drone trials sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of the U.K. Government. These trials were performed in Scotland in April and October 2021 and involved using the Hedera network to record flight data collected from sensors tracking the drones. The aim was to demonstrate the ability to track drone movements beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) while ensuring safety.

Hedera’s contribution, the Hedera Consensus Service, is a decentralized public ledger that collects data, including time-stamping, from the drone flights. The Hedera network was selected after a long period of consideration based on speed, refresh rates, high levels of system security, and the low transaction price.

Neuron’s eventual goal is to create a decentralized platform for various mobility solutions from drones and air taxis to autonomous vehicles and ground robots, according to the announcement. Niall Greenwood, CCO of Neuron, discussed the company’s leveraging of the Hedera system in an interview with Avionics International along with Neuron co-founder James Dunthorne and Hedera’s CMO, Christian Hasker. “We’ve been building this product for the last couple of years,” said Greenwood. “We are now progressing a number of larger trials with larger partners, under the Future Flight Challenge. We’re partnered with three of the partners globally including Atkins, the leading professional services provider, and Cirium, the leading aviation data provider.” The trials that Neuron conducts will demonstrate different aspects of future flight and advanced air mobility for both unmanned aircraft and eVTOLs.

Pictured here is Neuron’s platform for tracking drones and other aircraft. (Neuron)

When asked about targeted end-users and applications, Greenwood explained that the service is provided for drone operators. “To characterize the situation at the moment, aviation is pretty much broken. Unmanned aircraft, particularly drones, have to fly within the visual line of sight, which is hugely limiting. Our technology allows pilots to fly to the limits of the aircraft’s capability.”

In enabling advanced air mobility, Greenwood asks, is it more important to have traffic managers or to know where the aircraft are? “I think you have to know where the aircraft are. We have lots of UTMs but we have no way of knowing where the traffic is, or sharing that traffic positional data with other aircraft. There’s a fundamental issue that really needs to be considered about how UTMs are going to work together and how they are going to have the data that they need to actually manage unmanned or crewed traffic at these increased distances.”

Neuron’s James Dunthorne added, “A lot of work going on has been developing core infrastructure around UTM services. Part of that relies on a distributed architecture—the DSS—which is essentially a telephone directory for all the UTMs so they can interact with each other. One of the core fundamental missing pieces is around the airspace picture about where all the aircraft are. That piece hasn’t really been solved yet, and this is where we’ve been focusing our energy.

NASA’s development of a traffic management system for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) which was announced last week is intended to enable growth of UAS operations at lower altitudes for civilian applications. Dunthorne commented that this system “essentially provides instructions for drones on how to avoid each other, how to navigate through the airspace. It’s more about what you do with the data, not how you get the data in the first place.” In comparison, he says, Neuron is more focused on how to get the data to make decisions, and the UTM subsequently will provide the ability to make those decisions.

In the big picture, Dunthorne explained, “We’re trying to create an ecosystem where the communications between these vehicles can happen over shared infrastructure. With multiple competing systems used for communicating, what you end up with is siloed data which becomes unsafe. You can’t have three different views of the sky. There clearly needs to be some form of shared infrastructure.” Hedera allows Neuron to independently audit every single transaction that goes through their network.

Christian Hasker of Hedera commented on another benefit of using their system: “One of the promises of these new modes of transportation is that they are much more gentle on the environment than existing modes of transportation. The Hedera network is by far the most sustainable network. It is orders of magnitude more efficient than other networks. The governing council actually purchases carbon offsets to make the entire network carbon negative.”

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Ultra-Compact SkyDrive eVTOL Debuts at CES 2022

SkyDrive’s SD-03, a demonstration model for its SD-05 air taxi, was unveiled at the CES 2022 event in Las Vegas. (SkyDrive)

Tokyo-based startup SkyDrive revealed its full-scale demonstration model SD-03 aircraft at CES 2022 (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas last week. The vehicle has completed testing for piloted flight, and the Model SD-05 air taxi is already in development, having received its type certification from the Japanese transportation ministry—which no other developers in the country have achieved so far.

SkyDrive develops zero-emission aircraft, including cargo drones and manned vehicles. The startup was founded in 2018 and began performing driving and indoor flight tests of its unmanned SD-01 vehicle in the same year. Its first public flight test with a manned aircraft, its SD-03 model, was accomplished in 2020, and the team continues to work towards commercialization with a goal of presenting its SD-05 air taxi at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka. SkyDrive’s cargo drones are already employed at work sites in mountainous areas of Japan. The drones can carry payloads of over 66 pounds.

SkyDrive’s SD-03 successfully completed a manned flight test in 2020. (SkyDrive)

The Chief Operating Officer of SkyDrive, Takehiro Sato, remarked, “The SD-03 model is the culmination of our expertise in drone technologies and aerodynamic engineering. What we want to see in the future is that SkyDrive’s emission-free vehicles take off from and land in your parking lot and helipads atop buildings, making door-to-door air travel a realistic choice of daily urban transportation,” as quoted in the announcement.

SkyDrive’s aircraft achieved type certification at the end of October from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT). The type certificate from MLIT confirms that the aircraft’s design, structure, and performance adheres to specific safety and environmental requirements.

The air taxi achieved type certification in Japan in October 2021.

The first manned flight of the SD-03 model that took place in August 2020 lasted four minutes and carried one person. PR Manager Mayumi Ishii mentioned in an interview that one of the main roadblocks for the aircraft is its weight. “We hope we will have a final version by approximately 2040, but we are aiming to have a vehicle flying by the Osaka Expo in 2025,” she said.

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U.S. Air Force Makes New AFWERX Investment in Boom Supersonic Airliner Research

Boom Supersonic anticipates the first flight of its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft, pictured here at their Denver, Colorado hangar, to occur in 2022. (Boom Supersonic)

Boom Supersonic, the Denver, Colorado-based aerospace company developing a supersonic airliner capable of flying at Mach 1.7, announced a new contract award from the U.S. Air Force on Tuesday valued at up to $60 million. The Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract, issued to Boom through the Air Force’s innovation arm, AFWERX, and its AFVentures division, will be used to accelerate research and development of military applications for Overture—the supersonic commercial airliner currently under development.

According to Boom’s Jan. 11 announcement of the new contract, potential defense users and applications for a military variant of Overture could include “executive transport; Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance; Special Operations Forces; and the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF).”

United Airlines will acquire 15 supersonic airliners under a deal announced with Boom last summer. Pictured here is a computer-generated rendering of what United’s future Overture aircraft could look like. (Boom Supersonic)

Tuesday’s announcement is the latest financial investment by the Air Force in Boom, and a substantial increase over the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract award issued in September 2020 toward the development of a military executive transport configuration of Overture. Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, said in the Tuesday announcement that the STRATFI contract allows the company to “collaborate with the Air Force on the unique requirements and needs for global military missions, ultimately allowing Boom to better satisfy the needs of the Air Force where it uses commercially-derived aircraft. As a potential future platform for the Air Force, Overture would offer the valuable advantage of time, an unmatched option domestically and internationally.”

2021 was a year of progress on several aspects of Boom’s future supersonic air transportation plans, including the addition of Dr. Mark J. Lewis, Executive Director of the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute—and one of the leading hypersonic experts in the U.S.—to its Advisory Council. American Express also became one of the latest investors in Boom through its Amex Ventures arm, and United Airlines committed to a purchase of 15 Overture airliners in July.

Boom’s current supersonic research and development focus revolves around its XB-1, the sub-scale supersonic demonstrator aircraft first unveiled in October 2020, which the company expects to make its maiden flight in 2022. The company also anticipates breaking ground on its manufacturing facility for Overture this year, with future targets including rolling out Overture in 2025, flying Overture in 2026, and carrying passengers by 2029.

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